Written By Michelle F. Solomon
Originally published on artburstmaimi.com.
When Actors’ Playhouse opens the curtain on its production of “tick, tick . . BOOM!” there are many behind-the-scenes stories about close degrees of separation. The musical by Jonathan Larson, famously known for the Broadway hit “Rent,” is a semi-autobiographical story about the late composer.
But so many involved in the Playhouse’s production have up close and personal stories about Larson, which brings an interesting context to the Miami production. “tick, tick . . . BOOM” is in previews at the Miracle Theatre in Coral Gables for two shows Wednesday, Nov. 13 and Thursday, Nov. 14; the official opening is on Friday, Nov. 15 and it runs through Sunday, Dec. 8.
Director of the production is Andy Señor Jr., a Miami native, who made his professional debut on Broadway in Larson’s “Rent” playing one of the main characters, Angel Dummott Schunard, a percussionist drag queen. He imbued his character with Miami, “tropical vibe,” a Cuban immigrant backstory. Señor later joined the London cast in the same role and then embarked on an international tour. He turned to directing working with “Rent’s” original director Michel Greif, then he re-staged the musical in Japan and Korea. His journey of developing a production of “Rent” in Havana, Cuba, is the subject of a 2019 HBO Original Documentary. In 2022, for Actors’ Playhouse, he directed Gloria and Emilio Estefan’s musical “On Your Feet!” and also associate directed the Broadway production of the show.
This will be Señor’s second time directing “tick, tick . . . BOOM!”, which he first helmed in Japan. “I proposed it to Actors’ Playhouse. I told them I was doing the show in Japan and I’d love to bring it to South Florida.”
Larson created the musical as a solo show in the 1990s. A few years after the composer died, suddenly at the age of 35 and just a day before “Rent’s” first preview, “tick, tick . . .BOOM!” was reconfigured into a three-person off-Broadway musical in 2001.
The show centers around a composer named Jonathan and his creative struggle. As the clock ticks closer to his 30th birthday, he feels like he’s running out of time to write a hit musical, comparing himself to his idol. Composer Stephen Sondheim had written the lyrics for Broadway’s “West Side Story” when he was only 25 years old.
“I’ve always known the show and I’ve always loved the music, but I was never really connected to this as much as ‘Rent,’ ” says Señor. Then, the creator of the hit musical “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda sent him a preview of the film he was making of “tick, tick . . . BOOM!” that would be released in 2021.
“He said to me, ‘Hey, I would love your thoughts on this. It was before he finished the final cut.”
Señor recalls that he had a pen and pad and was ready to take notes to offer director-type insights. But what he hadn’t expected was how he became overwhelmed with emotion. “I was saying to myself, ‘This is the story of how Jonathan struggled. And now how my dreams – like everything I’ve dreamed of in my life, I’ve been able to create and it has been so sourced by Jonathan just showing up at that piano.”
It was also showing up at Actors’ Playhouse as a kid that had an influence on the now 50-year-old’s career choice. It was on a field trip to the original Actors’ Playhouse location in Kendall where he saw a production of the musical “Godspell.”
“It changed my life,” he says.
Playing the lead character, Jon, is Adam Kantor, who also has ties to “Rent” and to Miami. He made his Broadway debut in “Rent” starring as Mark Cohen, an aspiring filmmaker. Kantor was in the last cast on Broadway in “Rent” and appeared in Sony Pictures’ “Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway,” which captured the final performances.
While he’s never worked at Actors’ Playhouse before, he says he feels like he’s “known about it his entire life.”
His grandmother, Barbara Sussman, still lives in South Beach and Kantor says he’s spent time in South Florida visiting her and his aunt and uncle who live in North Miami. “So, Miami has always been my second home and when I was growing up, often my grandparents would take me to the theater, so I’m sure we saw something at Actors’ Playhouse.”
His aunt, Marcia Sussman Frantz, is well known in Miami arts circles having worked with Edward Villella as a prima ballerina in the 1990s with the Miami City Ballet. “She still lives in Miami with her husband, Jeff,” says Kantor.
Kantor says he and Señor have a long and rich history, too. “Because we were both part of the ‘Rent’ family.’ ” He says it has been thrilling to work with Señor on tick, tick . . . BOOM!”
“He is just an expert on the world of Jonathan Larson.”
Ironically, there’s another connection to Miami, the world of Larson and to “tick, tick . . . BOOM!” The character, Michael, is inspired by Larson’s childhood best friend Matthew O’Grady. The two grew up in White Plains, N.Y., and met in third grade. “He lived four blocks away. We just always knew each other. I didn’t have a brother, I had four sisters, and he didn’t have a brother, just a sister, so we just became brothers.”
To add to the local connections, O’Grady lives in New York but also has a place in South Florida. “I’m a snowbird. I fly my mother and her little dog down to her apartment.” O’Grady has his own apartment in Belle Isle in Miami Beach. Ironically, it’s Kantor’s grandmother, Barbara, who lives in the apartment next door.
In “tick, tick . . . BOOM!”, the character of Michael is Jonathan’s best friend since childhood, just like Matt. There are some differences, O’Grady points out. “Michael is an actor. I’ve never been an actor, but Jon told me he took some artistic liberties,” says O’Grady, who runs a retail analytics firm.
What he didn’t take liberties with, says O’Grady, is the character’s health status. “I’ve been HIV positive since I was 26 years old. I’m 64 now. They call me a long-term non-progressor. I’m healthy. It’s just painfully ironic that the first person I tell in my life about being HIV positive is Jon and he ends up dying nine years later. And I’m still alive today.”
O’Grady says he wouldn’t miss the opening night at Actors’ Playhouse. “The show still gets me. I always cry. Who wouldn’t cry? You’d have to be a cold fish not to be moved in some way by the relationships – the friendship between Jonathan and Michael. Jon was a witness. He observed everyone and he was curious. Quite honestly, I didn’t expect, no one expected this fame and the success of ‘Rent’ or ‘tick, tick . . .’ But Jon’s stories and music just strike a chord.”
When O’Grady sits in the balcony theater of Actors’ Playhouse and the lights go down and he’s ready to watch his friend’s production once again come to life, he says he’ll remember what he always does when he sees the show.
“Jon told me when he wrote it that ‘this is your 30th birthday present because I can’t afford anything.’ And so I’m so humbled and honored by all of it.”
WHAT: “tick, tick . . . BOOM!” by Jonathan Larson
WHERE: Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theater, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables
WHEN: Previews Wednesday, Nov. 13 and Thursday, Nov. 14. Opens Friday, Nov. 15 through Sunday, Dec. 8; 8 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. Special weekday matinee 2 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 20.
COST: $40 for preview performances, $45, $55, and $65 weekdays, $55 , $75, and $85 on weekends (seniors 65 and older, 10 percent off weekdays), $15 for students with valid ID for rush tickets available 15 minutes before weekday performances.
